Thursday, January 15, 2015

Female soccer player once ordered to strip naked to 'prove she was not a man': Report

A international women's soccer star has gone public on how she was once forced to strip naked in front of officials to prove she was not a man.

Rumors had already been circulating about Genoveva Anonma's gender but, after she led Equatorial Guinea to their first-ever African Women's Championship in 2008, the skeptics took action.

Instead of celebrating the victory, she was ordered to take a crude and "humiliating" gender test for members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

"They asked me to take all my clothes off in front of officials from CAF and the Equatorial Guinea team," she said in an interview with BBC Sport.

"I was really upset, my morale was low and I was crying. It was totally humiliating, but over time I have got over it."

Anonma added that the test, after scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 triumph over South Africa, wasn't the the only time the she has face harassment from her peers.

At the 2011 Women's World Cup, Anonma was embroiled in a scandal about her gender alongside her international teammates, sisters Salimata and Bilguisa Simpore after Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana accused the Guinea trio of being men due to their physical attributes.

"You only need to have physical contact with them on the pitch to know this [that they are men]," said Ghana defender Diana Amkomah at the time.

Anonma, who plays for German giants Turbine Potsdam, says she has never had the chance to prove she has always been a female.

"I was hoping they would call me to tell me they were taking me to hospital to do tests, but they never did," she added.

"They did nothing to me. It was just down to me alone to defend myself, to state that I am not a man, I am a woman."

Anonma claims she has never been granted permission to undergo a medical gender test to scientifically prove her gender and finally put an end to the accusations.